Archive for November 2015

At the end of a hard week, feeling tired, I had a big dose of heavy legs and CBFs to carry into the hills. With DC training the house down, and several others riding for survival in March, I took Jarrod out into the short sharp stuff. The idea was to bag 100km and a lot of steep vert. The route was Mt Pleasant, Stony Ck, Pidgeon Bank / Menzies / Kreuses Rd, Alma, down Cherry Tree to Hurstbridge and then back up Flat Rock before heading home via Bell’s Hill and reverse Mt P.

To hit 200 for the week I rolled back to Heidelberg with Jarrod which, of course, obliged us to do Burgundy St.

I didn’t quite make the kilo, although Jarrod did. I never felt great, and the pace was never spectacular, but at the same time, it wasn’t ever bad. That’s good.

I went to bed excited for this one, with a plan for how I wanted to ride the loop tomorrow. Bonds Road at 85% to kick the legs into gear. Steady to the KOM line, and all out from there to the end, fireworks or no.

This morning was the first time I’ve ridden the loop in control; with enough strength to ride each hill to the top and take the dips as recovery. Until now it’s been a paced ride the whole way, or burning on other peoples’ pace — up or down.

I bagged a PB on the KOM segment by a good :12s, despite losing a few seconds caught behind a slow descender on the downhill. The icing on the cake was PBs for both Bonds Rd and Pony Club in spite of not being full gas on either.

I sent a text out to the usual suspects on Saturday night asking if anyone would be keen to join me for 100km or so in the morning, hopefully taking in some extended climbing, maybe Kinglike. Only Dave replied, ‘but I’ll need to be home by 10.’

Rockin’.

I met DC at 6am at the bottom of Antoinette Boulevard and we took the direct route. After the kick he set out to chase the clock (19 minutes something). I just tried to keep a purposeful cadence the whole way, hoping it’d result in a PB. It didn’t, but came close at 23:25. Hoping to roll a 20 minute effort before the seasons out.

Up at the top we had a quick debate about whether to roll back down and pick up the extra kays ‘somewhere’, or just to roll down the back and then come back up. As soon as it was mentioned it was basically agreed, and we dropped like stones down to the highway before knocking out a decent tempo all the way back up again.

No time for photos, but we saw most of the PWC team sweating it out on the way up, Blankfield with his pain face on, toasting the rest of em.

Last week we chatted about the idea of riding this loop in reverse so that it began with Neramin Gateway, which has always looked like an interesting climb.

It’s still gorgeous, and there’s big potential is extending it out to include Flat Rock, Dawsons or Alma roads, but I think it has a better flow the other way.

Jarrod came out to get some hills in his legs after doing much of his training this season by the bay. He was stronger than I think Logie or I expected and only faded toward in the final quarter or so. For my part, I was filled with thoughts of DC turning himself inside out up Kinglake. Knowing the training effect of that kind of shindiggery I made sure not to catch myself cruising on the hills.

A chilly but beautiful early start for a quick loop through some solid rollers before the day began. It’s pretty special to be able to get a Mitton’s Bridge ride loop and a coffee in and be home by 9 a.m. (5:00 start notwithstanding).